OCT.46 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
may do, considering the matter by the light of 
facts with which we all have familiar acquain¬ 
tance. A single kernel of wheat in the fruit 
becomes 30, or more—most varieties give as 
much as 36 kernels to each full head. Then if 
each kernel of the bushel of seed gives thirty¬ 
fold in the yield, the bushel must give thirty¬ 
fold. But this is the lowest limit of capabi'ity 
for the fruitful seed, for It is based on the low¬ 
est product, one ear for each kernel of seed. 
When the soil is suited to wheat, and is well 
fitted for the seed, a single kernel, by tillering, 
may produce thirty heads. In good growth it 
should never average less than four or five 
stalks, and as many heads. Take the lower 
number and the bushel of seed, if each kernel 
roaches a moderate limit of production, must 
give a crop of 120 bushels. But this is never 
raised on an acre of ground, hence the con¬ 
clusion that some part of the seed is wasted, 
even when but one bushel is sown. That is to 
say, sowing one bushel to the acre presup¬ 
poses waste, and it may therefore be ass umed 
that when two bushels are sown where les6 
than one is required, one bushel is wasted. By 
this process of reasoning, the conclusion that 
20,000,000 bushels are wasted annually in the 
seeding in this country is inevitable if It be 
assumed that as many acres are sown annually 
I with two bushels to the acre. The acre ge of 
wheat is estimated at about 32,000,000, aud the 
We find the following in the Mark Lane 
Express, London: 
FARMER BEN’S THEORY. 
“ I tell ye it’s nonsouse," said Farmer Beu, 
“ This famuli’ by books and rules, 
And sendin' the boys to learn that stuff 
At the axi'ioultural schools. 
Kotation o’ oroj's und aiuilysis! 
Talk that to a yoUffF baboon ! 
But ye needn’t bo tollin’ yer science to me, 
For I believe in the moon 
“ If ye plant yer corn on the ^rowin’ moon, 
Aud put up the lines for crows, 
You’ll find it will bear, and yer wheat will, too, 
If it’s decent land whore’t irrows. 
But potatoes now are a different thin*. 
They want to grow down, that is plain; 
And don’t you see you must plant for that 
When the moon is on the wane. 
“ So in plantin’ andhoein’ and huyin’ time 
It is well to have an eye 
On the han* o’ the moon-ye know ye can tell 
A wet moon from a dry. 
And as to hayin’, you wise oues now 
Are outtin’ yer grass too soon; 
If you want it to spend, just wait till its npe, 
And mow on the full o’ the moou. 
“ And when all the harvest work is done, 
And tho butcherin’ times come ’round, 
Though yer hojmmav be lookin’ the very best, 
And as far j*e hogs are found, 
You will ffud yor pork all shriveled and shrunk 
When it comes to the table at noon— 
All fried to raws -if it wasn’t killed 
At the vitfbt time of the moon. 
" With tho farmers’ mee tin's aud granges now 
Folks can talk till all is blue, 
But don’t yo l>e bwailorm’ all ye hear, 
r For there ain’t mor’uhalf on’t true. 
They are trying to make me change my ways, 
But I tell ’em I’m no such coon; 
TEA LEAF AND MANNER 
persuading the fair ones to part with their 
tresses. In certain districts the girls regularly 
cultivate their hair for the market, the crop 
being ready for cutting every three years. The 
Norman women’s hair is the finest; the Bre- 
tonnes’, on the contrary, Is the most coarse; 
while the longest locks come from Limousin. 
Hair in the north is bleached by the sea-air, 
and in the mountainous districts it is dark and 
curly. The Americans are the chief customers 
for all kinds of colors; Germany takes tons of 
fair hair; and much of the same hue is sent to 
England." 
Thin Wheat Seeding.— Mr. W. A. Arm¬ 
strong, in his advocacy of thin-seeding when 
the ground is well prepared, made the following 
remarks at a late meeting of the Elmira Farm¬ 
ers’ Club; 
“ Now, let us see what one bushel of seed 
OF GORING.—FIG. 380. 
average yield less than 18 bushels to the acre. 
There is great waste somewhere, if as much as 
one bushel of seed is u-ed to the acre, for that 
should increase more than eighteen-fold ; but 
more seed is used—certainly a half bushel 
more—and the waste is therefore still greater.” 
Mr. Armstrong during a recent visit to Ohio, 
ascertained the following from a Mr. Benedict 
of Braceville. 
Mr. Benedict had a field, a portion of which 
was in potatoes in 1879, and gave a very poor 
crop. He plowed the field for wheat, and by 
an error in setting the drill, he got less than a 
bushel of seed on about an acre of the potato 
ground, and then set the drill to distribute 
about two buBbels to the acre on the remainder 
of the field. At the harvest the thinly-seeded 
acre gave a much heavier crop than any like 
area of the thickly-seeded portion. 
1 , thorough preparation of the land by harrow¬ 
ing and rolling; 2, drill seeding from one to 
two feet apart3, flat cultivation.To 
these we ascribe our great yield ot Blount and 
Chester. Try it, readers, another year, . . 
. . Mr. Read derives some comfort from the 
assumption that America does not seem fitted 
for the production ot barley, mutton or wool. 
..... . Barbed-wire fences. They have 
been tried in various parts of the country. Wo 
hear few words in their praise—many against 
them.Many journals are wroth that 
certain “Newspaper Directories” estimate 
their circulations far too low. We hear no 
fault-fiuding on the part of those whose circu¬ 
lations are placed far too high. ADd these 
latter are as six to one of the former. . . . 
No doubt the late sowing of wheat is the only 
feasible way of protecting it against the Hes¬ 
sian Fly. The yield, of course, will not be so 
heavy a6 when sown earlier. Farmers have to 
choose whether they will sow early and take 
the risk of the Fly, or late, with the probability 
of a smaller crop.Mr. G. W. Hoff¬ 
man has several times stated that auy land 
that will not produce a full crop of wheat with 
five pecks seeding to the acre, should not he 
used for wheat, for it is not good enough. 
Thick seeding will not compensate for poverty 
of soil.A wheat is now advertised in 
the London papers as “ OakBhot’a Champion 
White Wheat.” Some of the heads bear 80 to 
90 grains Judging from our trials of Mold’s 
Improved Wheats, we have not much confi¬ 
dence that Oakshot’s would prove here better 
than many of our own varieties.Mr. 
Fletcher Carr believes the following recipe to 
be a sure cure for lice on cattle, horses or hogs : 
Take equal parts of home-made soft-soap and 
warm water, mix them together, and rnb thor¬ 
oughly in the hair of the animal. It will not 
loosen the hair, or cause the skin to crack, or 
become sore, but on the other hand, it removes 
all scurf, softens the skin, aud improves the 
thrift of the animal. Pres. McCann bought a 
lot of steers infested with blue lice and tried a 
mixture of soft soap and about four times its 
bulk of water. It took off the hair and cracked 
the skin; but the lice disappeared. 
It is recommended in England to leave pota¬ 
toes intended for seed exposed to the 
light until they begin to “green. ” Treated 
in this way they will keep better aud 
prove more plump and vigorous. 
. . Few of our new native seedling grapes 
are of higher promise than the Prentiss.- It 
ripens with Concord. The bunch is large—the 
berry medium, yellowish-green skin which is 
thin but firm. The flesh is tender, sweet and 
juicy. The vine is a strong grower, produc¬ 
tive and hardy.. . The Rural Home 
justly complains that the price of agricultural 
weeklies is too low. Lot us suppose a case. 
The price of the Rural New-Yorker is $2 
per year. The price of agricultural mouthlies 
is from one to two dollars per year. Suppos¬ 
ing the average to be $1.50 and that the con¬ 
tents, paper and engravings cost the same, the 
subscriber should pay for the Rural not less 
than $6.50 per year according to the Rule of 
Three. The engraviugs from nature in tho 
Rural New-Y okker are one of our heaviest 
items of expense ; while if they were mere re¬ 
productions they would cost far less than 
original printed matter occupying the same 
space. We are not complaiuiug that the price 
of monthlies is too much—but that the price 
of weeklies is too little. We heartily wish suc¬ 
cess to all, but the disparity of price is not fair. 
i snau Keep rtg-nt on in the safe old 
And work my farm by the moon. 
Hereford8 and Short-horns. —The Short¬ 
horn has no qualitv superior to that which the 
Hereford possesses ; if it has, let it be fairly 
shown, says a writer in the London Agricultural 
Gazette, Take each point in order; both 
breeds have been well tried, both as grazers 
and feeders. It is acknowledged that the Here¬ 
ford is the best grazer, and it is asserted in 
England aud America that four Here fords can 
be fed on the same meat as three Short-horns. 
There Is evidence to show that the milking 
quality of the Hereford is as good as of the 
high-class 8hort-horn, and her milk is much 
richer. The London market bears testimony 
to the superiority of the Hereford meat, by 
always quoting it in advance of the Short¬ 
horn. Their early maturity and weight for 
age have been tested again and again, and 
there is little difference in either breed. The 
merit of the Hereford for crossing purposes 
has been disputed, but now it is an indisputa¬ 
ble fact that they are fast gaining ground in 
the good opinion of graziers. 
Hair Harvest. —The following is going the 
rounds of the Frencfi press:—“The hair-har¬ 
vest in France is now in full activity, and 
dealers are attending the different fairs, and 
WHAT OTHERS SAY. 
Horsemen After Fair Premiums. —No 
class of exhibitors, says the N. Y. Tribune, at 
a fair are so sharp for premiums as horsemen. 
The fuss and worry of the average horse ex¬ 
hibitor and the physical energy put forth, if 
spent in a political way, might send him to 
Congress. When disappointment comes, as 
come it must to nine out of ten, there ensues a 
flow of tropical language which might be Con¬ 
gressional, for it is expressive if not elegant. 
The trotting-horse generally is still in the fore¬ 
ground, and commands the attention of the 
multitude. The useful Norman or Clydesdale 
goes too slow. 
A Profitable Orchard. — J. 8. Wood- 
waid, Lockport, N. Y., has a 200-acre farm 
four miles out of town, which was visited 
by the Editor of the Country Gentleman. 
He writes that his 30-acre apple orchard 
is 14 years old, in which 200 sheep and 40 
swine destroy all the codling worms that 
fall, and very few of these insects are 
found in the fruit. Sheep have proved more 
efllcieut than swine in the greater vigilance 
with which they seize every dropping apple. 
To prevent the sheep from eating the bark of 
the trees, he washes the trunks with a mix¬ 
ture of lime wash, common and whale-oil 
soap and sheep dung. These animals are kept 
in the orchard till September. They eat the 
fruit and branches within their reach, and 
some years have thus devoured 3&0 or 300 bush¬ 
els, but the benefit resulting from keeping 
them so late overbalances any loss. Iu all 
cases the sheep must be well fed in troughs 
with grain, in addition to the giass and fallen 
fruit. He thinks the hogs cleared out all the 
canker worms at the commencement of the 
entrance of these insects into the orchard. 
The trees are mostly Baldwins, with Rhode 
Island Greenings, and Roxbury Russets. Last 
year the crop amounted to 2,600 barrels, which 
sold for over $5,000. 
Wintering Bees.— Mr. J. King advises in 
his bee j ournal that, inasmuch as honey stored 
in June and July is thicker and contains less 
acid than that stored later in the season, it be 
removed from the hives and put away in a 
dark, dry place for Winter purposes, and its 
place in the hive be filled with frames full of 
comb foundation set in the center of the hive ; 
and, if a dearth of honey in the flowers occurs, 
feed a little sirup from the best brown sugar 
each evening from the entrance of the hive. 
This, says Mr. King, will promote rapid breed¬ 
ing, and by the time Fall flowers are ready 
there will be a host of vigorous young workers 
to store it away. As bees are not inclined to 
stove honey in boxes in the Fall, Mr. King 
uses the extractor and replaces thu empty 
combs iu the center of the breeding depart¬ 
ment of the hive, a process which, he believes, 
invariably es.cites the bees to intense activity. 
When the Fall harvest is going on the queen 
will appropriate space in these center trames 
of the empty comb iu order to insure a suf¬ 
ficient number of the young bees going into 
winter-quarters. Finally. Mr. King extracts 
all the combs containing honey and no 
brood to speak of, and puts them away 
for use in early Spring; in their places 
he sets the frames full of summer-stored 
honey. With six or seven frames in 
•the center of each hive he brings the close- 
fiiting division boards close up and places a 
chaff cushion on top of the frames, about four 
inches thick. Air-holes are left open in each 
end of the cap and the entrance is contracted 
into about one inch space. Quinby gives the 
necessary supply of honey at five conus, aver¬ 
aging five pounds each, or six weighing four 
pounds each, for wintering indoors, with an 
excess of five pounds tat hives wintered out¬ 
side. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Dairy Farming, by Frof. J. P. Sheldon, 
published by Cassell, Pelter, Galpin Co., 
New York. This is the loth monthly number 
of this splendid work to which we have had 
frequent occasions to refer during its publica¬ 
tion. It will probably be completed in 25 
numbers at 40 cents each, and will be the most 
exhaustive work thathas ever appeared on $he 
subject of which It treats. It is copiously 
illustrated both by large fiuely colored plates, 
one as a fi ouespiece to each number, and by 
numerous wood cuts of dairy appliances, 
buildings, plans, etc., etc. We would strongly 
advise our readers to secure this work, which 
is full of varied instruction in every branch of 
dairy husbandry. 
Farming with Green Manures, by C. 
Harlan, M. D., published by J. B. Lippineott 
& Co., Philadelphia, Pa. This handsomely 
gotten-up, cloth- bounu volnme of 269 pages, 
12 mo., is a second edition, revised and en¬ 
larged, of a work already favorably known to 
some of our readers. It is not so much a rec¬ 
ord of personal experience or observation on 
the subject of which it treats, as it is a com¬ 
pilation of what has been said on it in various 
books aud periodicals. A perusal of it will 
give a good deal of information with regard to 
other people’s experiences on green manuring. 
